This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2004, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Walking is the most dangerous form of transportation.
And the country's streets are getting even meaner. The majority of the nation's top 50 metropolitan areas report an increase in the pedestrian death rate over the past decade.
But Salt Lake City is bucking that trend - and in so doing, it is being held up as a model for how to improve pedestrian safety.
In fact, the Salt Lake City-Ogden metro area has made the greatest gains in safety in the nation, according to the report "Mean Streets 2004" by the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP).
"We have made this a top priority in my administration," said Mayor Rocky Anderson during a national telephone news conference about the report. "We undertook virtually every measure that we could to provide for pedestrian safety."
Salt Lake City-Ogden's Pedestrian Danger Index, which measures pedestrian deaths relative to how much people walk, dropped 44 percent between 1994-95 and 2002-03. Provo-Orem's danger index declined 4 percent. In 2002-03, seven pedestrians were killed in that Utah County area.
Anderson attributed the plunge to such measures as orange flags that make pedestrians more visible, enhanced fines against drivers, count-down timers that tell walkers just when the light will change, pedestrian-activated flashing lights, and "LOOK" signs imbedded in the pavement at crosswalks. Since the start of those programs, the number of accidents involving pedestrians has dropped 31 percent, according to the city.
The mayor took on the challenge when he took office in 2000, the same year Mean Streets ranked the Salt Lake City-Ogden area as the nation's 12th deadliest.
At about the same time, the mayor saw a man lying in the street near the Gallivan Center after a hit-and-run.
"It hit me so hard that, as mayor, the buck stops with me; that we needed to do everything we could to make pedestrians more visible to motorists," he said.
But pedestrians standing in downtown's line of traffic Thursday said the mayor needs to do more.
Waiting on Main Street to cross 100 South, Janice Dame said the orange flags "have helped," but she still needs to watch out for inattentive drivers.
And William Newell, who recently stopped driving his truck and has been walking more often, said he would "hate to be walking in other cities because it's not very safe here. I've probably been nearly run over two times. I'm not exaggerating."
Another walker, Todd Tomkinson, would support using PhotoCop, where speeders and others are caught by radar instead of a police officer. "No one ever stops on red lights here."
But that technology is illegal in Utah. Changing that is on Anderson's to-do list.
STPP, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit, has been tracking pedestrian fatalities nationally - some 52,000 of them - between 1994 and 2003.
The number of pedestrian deaths has dropped over the last decade. But the report notes that fewer people are walking. In 1990, 4.5 million Americans walked to work. By 2000, 3.8 million walked, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
And, according to the report, fatality rates are higher for walkers than drivers and airline passengers. For instance, the 2001 fatality rate per 100 million miles traveled is 1.3 for drivers and their passengers, and 20.1 for walkers. Children and minorities make up a disproportionate share of the pedestrian fatalities, according to the report.
"We design too many of our roads . . . for cars and only cars. We don't enforce traffic rules adequately. We don't treat [walking] as a legitimate form of transportation," said STPP President Anne Canby.
All of the most dangerous roads are in the nation's South and West, in areas characterized by lower-density developments and wide, high-speed streets.
STPP recommends designing communities to facilitate a variety of transportation options that include walking, biking and transit.
Salt Lake City is making such strides.
For example, it has a new bicycle and pedestrian master plan. The number of traffic lanes were reduced on 700 East to make room for a bicycle lane and a landscaped median. Housing projects are springing up around transit stops and more communities are angling for light rail.
Anderson also will be promoting walking through a health campaign his office will launch soon.
At the same time, the mayor has struggled to convince the City Council to pass two ordinances to make commercial areas more pedestrian-friendly. And the council gutted a traffic-calming program this year.
"If you make it easy and safe to walk and ride a bike, more people will use that option," said Dave Siegel, president-elect of the American Planning Association. "It [the report] is a call to action to people to take back your streets."
SLC-Ogden metro area ranking
among nation's top 50:
2000: 12th deadliest with 60 pedestrian deaths during 1998-99
2002: 18th deadliest with 49 pedestrian deaths during 2000-01
2004: 31st deadliest with 30 pedestrian deaths during 2002-03